September 14th, 2012: Creepshow (1982)

What It’s About: Five creepy tales in the tradition of 1950s horror comics from terror masters George A. Romero and Stephen King.

Why Watch it Today?: In the early 1950s “concerned adults” took aim at the comic books that they blamed for juvenile delinquency. Although superhero comics and violent crime and war comics were also targeted, the bulk of the ire settled on what was then one of the hottest genres in the industry: the horror comic, dominated by E.C. Comic titles like Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, The Haunt of Fear and more. On this date in 1954, Bill Gaines reluctantly cancelled all of E.C.’s horror titles. Eventually, some of the kids that grew up reading his comics wound up making art of their own; two of the most successful were Romero and King, who collaborated on this excellent anthology film.